Blog post

This is the time of year when we hear a lot of buzz around 2018 planning. I’ll throw in my two cents. Although goals are important, it is key we believe they are possible and our teams think so as well.

In my initial sessions with new clients, it is not unusual for them to look like a deer in the headlights when I ask them how they would like to be able to describe their companies in three years. Some created long-termed goals and abandoned them, just living day to day. As we explore how those goals were defined, I hear about gut-it-up goals and living-on-hope goals.

Gut-it-up goals are those we think we should set. We make ourselves believe we will gut it up and make it happen no matter what. The determination is great and exciting initially, but over time it wanes if we don’t know exactly why we succeed and why we fail. Just pushing through gets old and drags down our teams.

Living-on-hope goals are about those goals we want so badly to achieve and our fans tell us we can do it. If we just believe it hard enough, it will happen. Hope quickly falls to lethargy when our teams cannot get traction beyond our initial enthusiasm.

To create believable goals, we borrow from our past and borrow from the marketplace. In other words, what measurable, key trends did we see in our businesses that we can leverage right on into next year? Where are we languishing and what are the proven steps to improve these areas based on experience and real numbers? What are the trends in our industry? Where are the best practices to leverage, even in other industries?

These questions and more help us shape our 2018 plans based upon believable goals. If we have a plan to get us there derived from our truth and that of our teams, we have a real chance of reaching our highest aspirations.

Let’s talk about your goals. Answer these six questions and we can have a brief chat.